Norway's largest sovereign wealth fund will urge the companies it owns to take animal welfare into account in their shareholdings, a move welcomed by animal rights activists.

„We regularly update our expectations for companies – most of them are related to sustainability and governance, and we have recently included animal welfare“, – explained the fund's spokeswoman, Caroline Eriksen, to AFP Tuesday.

Specifically, the foundation will ask the companies whose shares it owns to comply with the Terrestrial Animal Health Code issued by the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The Code provides a number of recommendations to protect animals from hunger, thirst, fear, stress, pain, disease, injury and discomfort and other risks.

The fund, which has assets of $1.75 trillion, holds shares in some 8 800 companies in 71 countries. These companies include food industry giants such as China's „WH Group“ and the US's „Tyson Foods“ and „Pilgrim's Pride“.

At the end of December, the Foundation included animal welfare in its position paper on consumer interests.

This issue will be raised with companies as part of the regular dialogue with management, as well as during shareholder votes, the foundation said.

The position papers, which the fund has developed as part of its good governance efforts, differ from the fund's ethical guidelines, which are published by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.

The latter guidelines prohibit the fund from investing in companies whose industries are considered harmful, such as coal, tobacco and some types of weapons. It is also prohibited from remaining a shareholder in such companies.

The blacklist currently includes 107 companies, including „Airbus“, „Boeing“ and „British American Tobacco“.

The Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance welcomed the Foundation's move in the field of animal welfare as a "major breakthrough".

„We have been campaigning for years for the sovereign wealth fund to recognise animal welfare as a serious issue“,– said Alliance spokeswoman, Live Kleveland.

Over the years, the foundation has adopted a series of position papers on its expectations in areas ranging from combating climate change to fighting corruption.

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund's positions are often followed by investment funds around the world.